The creator of the Friend AI necklace announced a “Friends Protest” in New York City

If you live in New York City, you are unlikely to miss this opportunity Friend AI pendant fallout subway ad – Whether you’ve snapped photos of the most inspiring graffiti on subway ads, tried to tear your eyes away from the near-constant presence of the device all over the ads inside subway cars, or asked a friend to text you, “What’s that thing?”

Although Friend was founded in 2023, the $129 chatbot-enabled necklaces only started shipping this summer, and the accompanying Subway ad campaign — which set the company back more than a year. 1 million dollarsas much as approx Its domain name – It first appeared last month. The reviews have painted a picture of a device that can make people uncomfortable and It often doesn’t do well at what it’s supposed to do (i.e. listen to your conversations and events of your day and provide comments and feedback).

On the same weekend that saw “No Kings” protests around the world, there was also a Friends protest of sorts. Founding friend Avi Schiffman to publish An image of a flyer with an image of the device on it, which reads: “I hear you New Yorkers are against me. Let’s break this down once and for all, before we go bankrupt.” The flyer also specified a time and place to meet, as well as a handwritten message, “Bring your own markers.”

Based on photos and videos that probably Sunday’s “event” was not created by Sora, it actually happened. Shiffman’s post shows people using Sharpies to deface a friend’s sign, including one person writing, “Fuck AI”; A chalk drawing of a sad-faced friend’s device; It appears that people are playing basketball while holding a piece of paper or cardboard cut out of the buddy machine.

Schiffman said that when contacted for comment on whether Friend had organized the protest and whether or not those attending were organic, Edge He had no role in planning the event, adding that he took a flight to New York to be there because people sent him pictures of the ads.

“During the event I was on stage talking to the audience, and later that night I found them in the park and we all sat in a big circle and talked. They were all very serious,” he wrote. “I found it to be a productive conversation and we all shook hands at the end. It was a real protest for sure.”

Shiffman also published A image He appears to have signed a handwritten document stating that he “will not sell friends.com” to CEOs of major tech companies for “surveillance purposes.”

last video The thread shows people grabbing the cut paper from the machine and tearing it apart as the audience chanted: “Get real friends.” After the free-for-all ripping ended, people shouted, “Get that shit out of here” and “Fuck the AI.”

In short: New Yorkers don’t take kindly to overly enthusiastic subway ads — especially if they’re about AI being an acceptable alternative to a “friend.” And for Friend’s CEO, that’s still better than not caring at all.